For those of you that gave up something for Lent, I commend you.

With the children counting down the days to the Easter Bunny arrives, perhaps you too are anxiously awaiting the big day to indulge in your sacrifice as well. I wonder: If after giving up something for 40 days, do you ease back into it or go for the gusto? Did you miss it so much that you will never give it up again? Or was it easy to walk away from?

Having never challenged myself to give up anything for 40 days and making myself accountable, I can only watch from the sidelines in amazement and awe. I have so many guilty pleasures…watching BRAVO marathons on TV, drinking wine, wasting water by taking baths at night, and don’t even get me started on my chocolate fixation.

I realize the basis of Lent is prepare the believer through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial and the 40 days are from the Death of Christ on Good Friday until his resurrection on Easter Sunday. So, I am not writing this blog lightly, but in tribute to those that partake in this ritual.

As a woman who was raised in the Jewish religion but married a Christian, my knowledge of Easter was limited to a bunny, dying Easter eggs, and decorating cookies. (BTW, I once went to an Easter Egg hunt where the eggs were dropped from a helicopter in the sky!) Since we have had our children and lived in Georgia, we began attending a Presbyterian church and my religious knowledge has expanded.
Last week, my daughter and I attended a 5 hour bible study on the Old Testament. Being Jewish and all, I thought it was history I should know but unfortunately didn’t; and therefore volunteered and paid to take this course on a Sunday.

I know I didn’t give up anything for 40 days, but I gave up 5 hours for God on a sunny Sunday and after not seeing the sun in several months, I thought it was some kind of a sacrifice. I felt good about myself and GOD when I was done with the course, and if I felt that good after 5 hours, I can only imagine how you feel after 40 days.

Say “Yay Me,” a popular ChaChaBella saying, if you are on your way to completing your Lent sacrifice.

If you gave up something unusual for LENT, you might be the winner of ChaChaBella ring as your reward, even if you went back to it after your 40 days. Send me your story at www.chachabella.com and since ChaChaBella is an equal opportunity business, if you aren’t Christian and have a good story of something you gave up, send it in as well.
Contact Suzanne at s@chachabella.com

I am no expert on St. Patrick’s Day, but it helps break up the month of March and I am always looking for a reason to celebrate.

The Irish have generously shared their patron saint, St. Patrick, with us and welcomed us into their pubs across the United States. No other holiday appears to be as tolerant of others as St. Patrick’s Day. Our only requirement is to wear green clothing, and have a willingness to toast and drink with the Irish. In America, we wear green so we don’t get pinched, which is just a silly tradition. But, we also punch people when we see a Volkswagen Beetle, so we are easily amused. Some people say that we wear green because Ireland is nicknamed the Green Isles. In Ireland, they wear the colors from the flag which is Green for the Catholics, Orange for the Protestants and the White for the peace between them.

I can remember as a youth searching for the mysterious four leaf clover or shamrock! While many like to claim a mythical explanation for the existence of four-leaf clovers, a simple genetic mutation is the real cause. According to legend, on a four-leaf clover, each leaf stands for something. One leaf symbolizes hope, one is for faith, another for love, and the fourth is, of course, for luck. Some people are just born lucky, but my dad used to say - and I think he stole the line from Benjamin Franklin- “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” For example, when I played golf in my youth and I would make a 20ft putt, my friends would say, “You am so lucky” but in reality, I practice 20ft putts for more than an hour a day for a week. We all know inherently lucky people, maybe they found a Shamrock, which is hard to do, as it is estimated that there is only 1 out of every 10,000 clovers!

One of the things that the Irish are known for are their great toasts. You may even remember some of the limericks from the movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise as an Irish bartender. There are so many Irish Blessings that it is worthy of a google search for a good laugh. I enjoyed this one very much:

There are 4 things you must never do: lie, steal, cheat, or drink.
But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.
If you must steal, steal away from bad company.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away...
Brianne Kelly Darragh


For those Irish brides or ChaChaGirls out there, I would love to know a toast you used at your wedding or at a birthday party. The best one will earn a green ChaChaBella ring, as that is a must wear on St. Patrick’s Day!

Contact Suzanne, where my non-Irish eyes are always smiling, at S@chachabella.com.